Boijmans diary 2015

Boijmans Diary 2015
A question of time

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s 67th diary is all about time. Not the short-lived moment, but the long haul; not the turning point, at which everything changes suddenly, but the lengthy process of gradual development. The 2015 diary includes 54 objects from the museum’s collection in which we can see and sense the passage of time.

This theme is interpreted in a great variety of ways. Giuseppe Penone deals with natural growth processes: his artwork shows us the seeds of what will be. Jan Asselijn’s drawing of a classical arch shows the process of decay, referring back to an earlier time. Some of the works concern constantly repeating cycles, such as Jacob Matham’s engravings of the four seasons.

Works of art not only visualise the passage of time, they are defined by it. In his satirical print, William Hogarth shows old Father Time as a vandal, whose carelessly placed scythe has sliced through a painting. Sadly, time can take its toll on artworks in reality too. This is strikingly illustrated in this diary by a panel painting by Hieronymus Bosch and a glass bottle that has taken on pearlescent patina.

Some artworks embody the ticking of the clock. In the 144-Minute Teapot from Jurgen Bey’s Minutes Service we can see precisely how much progress the painter made in decorating the pot in that amount of time. Time is money. This principle was not lost on the seventeenth-century artist Gerard Dou, who was in no rush to finish his paintings.

But as we all know from experience, time remains an elastic concept. Occasionally we have too much on our hands, mostly we have too little. Sometimes time flies and sometimes it slows to a crawl. This diary allows you to take the time every week to enjoy the great diversity of artworks from different periods that the museum has collected over the past 166 years.

Practical information

Size: 22,5 x 19 cm, 67th edition.

The quickest and easiest way to order the diary is via webshop.boijmans.nl.Price: € 17,50 plus postage (depending on your location).

You can also order the diary, in which case the cost is € 30,00.
Diaries will be dispatched only on receipt of payment, which should be made by transfer (BIC: RABONL2U; IBAN: NL29RABO0152327363) or by creditcard: Visa, Euro/Mastercard.